The Resurrection Of Mars
After discovering Lucie Miller’s presence, the Doctor hesitates to detonate the charges that would destroy Ice-Warrior-infested Deimos – giving the Ice Warriors time to disable the charges. The human colonists and even Tamsin, the Doctor’s own companion, are shocked that he’d endanger them all on the mere possibility that Lucie is on Deimos. For her part, Lucie has no idea what’s going on, having been dumped on Deimos after a disagreement with the time-traveling Monk, another Time Lord whose interference the Doctor stopped at Kells Abbey. When the Monk pays Tamsin a visit, he begins to give her a very skewed version of his checkered history with the Doctor, changing her mind about traveling with him. To his dismay, the Doctor has to resort to a more forceful means of coercing the Ice Warriors back into their deep freeze hibernation, which only proves the Monk’s point.
written by Jonathan Morris
directed by Barnaby Edwards
music by Howard CarterCast: Paul McGann (The Doctor), Niky Wardley (Tamsin Drew), Sheridan Smith (Lucie Miller), Nicky Henson (Gregson Grenville), Susan Brown (Margaret), Tracy-Ann Oberman (Temperance Finch), Nick Wilton (Harold), Nicholas Briggs (The Ice Warriors), Jack Brown (Pilot)
Notes: Big Finish’s web site displays an alternate cover for this story to preserve the surprise of Lucie’s return.
LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green
At the end of the 22nd century, planet Earth has been laid to waste by decades of radioactive planet bombs launched by the all-conquering Gamilas. The surviving human population has resorted to elaborate underground cities to survive, but the radiation will soon reach a point beyond which the surface of the Earth cannot protect them. All life on Earth is doomed.
teleplay by Adam Fierro and Frank Darabont
Cast: Stephen Mangan (Dirk Gently), Helen Baxendale (Susan Harrison), Darren Boyd (Richard Macduff), Doreen Mantle (Ruth Jordan), Jason Watkins (DI Gilks), Lisa Jackson (Janice Pearce), Anthony Howell (Gordon Way), Miles Richardson (Doctor Gerstenberger), Billy Boyle (Harry Jordan), Elliot Sutherland (Tom), Gary Pillai (Doctor), Alisha Bailey (Reporter), Joe Hall (Newsagent), Leona Walker (Receptionist), Alex Parry (Barman)
Notes: The second of the BBC’s attempts to dramatize Douglas Adams’ lesser known books, this is the first attempt on television, and adapts the first of those novels, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, for an hour-long TV format. The results were popular enough to result in a short season of three further episodes the following year.
Sam Flynn, the rebellious son of legendary (and now missing) ENCOM video game programmer Kevin Flynn, spends his time fixing up his father’s motorcycle and finding new ways to cause grief for the current generation of ENCOM executives. The only member of the ENCOM board that Sam can tolerate for even short amounts of time is his father’s old friend Alan Bradley, who reveals that he received a mysterious page from Flynn’s downtown arcade – which has, like its owner, been out of commission for 20 years. Sam goes to investigate, and finds a hidden office full of unusual computers and other equipment, including a laser which activates the moment Sam queries the computer about its function. Sam finds himself inside the computer, in a digital realm known as the grid. Forced to compete in deadly winner-takes-all games on the grid, Sam learns quickly that he must win to live – and to lose means death. He comes to the attention of the seemingly all-powerful digital dictator Clu, who looks like his programmer, Kevin Flynn (circa 1989). Clu takes a personal interest in challenging Sam, who is then rescued by a female program named Quorra and taken to meet his real father. Now grizzled and isolated, Flynn’s custodianship of this experimental digital world was long ago usurped by Clu, in a coup that also marked the last time Flynn saw his friend, the warrior progeam Tron. Now Clu has plans for both the world inside the computer and the real world as well. Two generations of Flynns, with Quorra’s help, might just be able to save both worlds.
Laura Rogers (Isabella), Meg Wynn-Owen (old Isabella)
The Demons Of Red Lodge: The Doctor and Nyssa awaken in the dark, surrounded by creatures that almost certainly mean them harm. Even the Doctor has to fight down a panic response to find a way out of the situation, until the time travelers encounter a seemingly friendly face who offers them shelter. They quickly discover the truth: they’re now locked in with something even worse.
Still moving from place to place after leaving their home planet, the Doctor and Susan arrive on the planet Quinnis, a world in the fourth universe. The TARDIS has landed in a market square, and the haggard-looking people of Quinnis seem ready to sell the time travelers anything in exchange for curiosities from their travels – but especially water, as rain has become a rarity. The Doctor quickly grows impatient with the primitive state of scientific knowledge, but is amazed by the local architecture: the town is a vertical maze of unfinished bridges, and the dwellings along its streets are boats, permanently moored to the bridges. Since he’s already performed one miracle – the TARDIS appearing out of thin air – the Doctor is mistaken for a rainmaker, and his protests to the contrary are ignored. The locals want him to make it rain – or else – to trigger their planet’s brief harvest. But even the bountiful vegetation on the ground level could prove to be deadly, especially when the ensuing monsoon washes the TARDIS away.
Determined to make amends for the Christmas that he ruined for her in 2009 – the Christmas that made her decide to leave the TARDIS – the Doctor offers to provide Lucie with a more relaxed Yuletide holiday, taking her to Earth’s future to celebrate with his family for a change. Susan Campbell, still helping to rebuild the Earth and raising her son Alex, is surprised to see the TARDIS show up on schedule. For his part, Alex is still coming to grips with the fact that his mother is an “alien,” and his great-grandfather travels through time and space in a police box. As Lucie dives headfirst into preparations for a perfect Christmas, Susan’s fears about Alex’s future come to the surface: she’s worried that he’ll want to travel with the Doctor instead of staying on Earth to take part in the reconstruction effort. And deep in the TARDIS, something dating back to Susan’s travels with the first Doctor is about to crash the party.
The fifth Doctor visits a Jariden space station where that race is conducting surprisingly advanced experiments in time travel. But the Doctor isn’t the only one with a keen interest in these experiments: a fleet of Dalek ships moves in, and an invasion force boards the station, demanding access to the contents of a sealed vault. And one of the Jaridens, Colonel Ulrik, intends to help the Daleks retrieve what’s in the vault, despite the wishes of his sister, who happens to be the station’s lead scientist. Someone identifying himself only as another Time Lord contacts the Doctor and offers hints of how to resolve the situation, but not any actual help. The sixth Doctor encounters the battle-scarred Colonel Ulrik – at an earlier point in his history – during the bloody battle of Pejorica, in which the Daleks decimated the Jariden species. It seems that the Doctor is pushing Ulric and his race toward a major evolutionary turning point that could help in their struggle against Dalek oppression. The seventh Doctor pays a visit to Michael Faraday, only to find that Ulrik is here as well, followed by a small squadron of Daleks. The small battle that plays out before Faraday’s eyes is almost too much for one of human science’s greatest visionaries. And the eighth Doctor visits the Jariden space station, gently manipulating Ulrik and the fifth Doctor’s actions – and therefore those of his other previous selves – to ensure that the tide of history doesn’t turn to favor the Daleks.